For Radio New Jerusalem

June 22, 2018

Dear Catholic Advocacy Network and the Michigan Catholic Conference:

The "bipartisan" legislation the USCCB is proposing is actually a return to the open border policies of President Obama and the Democrat Party.  These are the very policies that created the current immigration crisis that President Trump is working so hard to correct, and my support rests with him and the Republicans seeking these much needed reforms.  Our leftist bishops have played on emotion by calling this a "pro-life" issue, equating the demonstrably more humane detention of children at the border under the Trump administration with the abomination of abortion on demand -- an issue they are largely choosing to ignore in favor of jumping on the mainstream media bandwagon bashing the president.  

President Trump is the most proactive, pro-life president in history, and he has done more than talk about this issue like previous Republican presidents.  He has cut funding to Planned Parenthood, and promotes the pro-life cause personally and publicly.  The USCCB, during the time of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, at least talked about this issue, but has largely fallen silent during the reign of Pope Francis, and the presidency of Barrack Obama, due to the former's support of a globalist population control agenda that actually favors abortion, and the latter's generous fiscal support of the Church's Muslim resettlement agenda, which pumped much need cash into the bishop's depleted coffers. 

As the bishop's malign policies that they believe “detrimentally impact families and the vulnerable,” they do so ignoring policies that have the US economy solving the greater issue of poverty through 4.3 million jobs created in President Trump's first 500 days in office.  He accomplished this while working diligently to correct the debacle of the so called "Affordable" Healthcare Act, which has actually made the cost of healthcare skyrocket for most American families, to where an unexpected illness increases the poor population rather than reducing it as the Democrats promised.  And he has done all of this and more while struggling against the USCCB and Catholic advocacy associations like yours, which do nothing but mindlessly support Democratic talking points at the bishops' urging.  You claim "bipartisanship" while ignoring the deeper truths of a Democrat Party that stands categorically opposed to Catholic teaching on such vital issues as abortion on demand (and with government funding), marriage as defined by one man and one woman, religious freedom in the public square, and which supports the "open borders" migration policies championed by Pope Francis -- policies which have resulted in strife, chaos, turmoil and death in such (formerly) Catholic and Christian European countries as Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Sweden, and many others. 

As for the "fake news" of the president's supposed contempt for the "Dreamers," the reality is a path to citizenship, and what these new and welcome citizens will find, thanks to him and his reforms, is an American opportunity similar to what our own ancestors encountered.  And this as opposed to an endless sentence in the government imposed welfare state of the Democrats.  Thanks be to God that the election of President Trump has so far prevented the kind of horrors in the United States that the global socialist agenda has created in Europe, and this no thanks to our American bishops.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

The reason our bishops have no shame is because the USCCB was literally bought off by the $90 million plus per year they were receiving to resettle Muslim refugees under the Obama Administration, which accounted for a staggering 97% of their annual budget.  No wonder they are howling at the president's immigration reforms!  They collected well over half a billion dollars during the Obama years, and it is this administration's policies that created the current immigration mess the president is trying to fix. He will succeed with or without this shameful display of political pandering on your part and that of our bishops.  And if the USCCB loses it's ill gotten cash cow in the process, so much the better.  Maybe this will prompt them to return to proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ instead of shilling shamelessly for the corrupt, anti-Catholic and anti-Christian socialist policies of the Democrat Party.  Maybe this will encourage them to finally clean up the ongoing sexual abuse scandal that has driven, and continues to drive, millions of Catholics from the pews, and which has necessitated this whoring with the government for the money that used to be dropped into the collection baskets every week by willing, joyful and more plentiful Catholics.  And since this is merely a reflection of the bigger picture, maybe we should pray for a pope who doesn't set the example for this behavior by turning the Curia over to the lusts of the St. Gallen Mafia, while currying the favor of the globalists and promoting the agenda of such an anti-Catholic, anti-Christ socialist as George Soros.  And you'd do well to check your own funding sources for those organizations connected to him.

The American people (and particularly American Catholics) are ill informed, misinformed, and misled, and it is beyond the pale that a Catholic organization would put politics before faith in such a thinly veiled attempt to promote an anti-Trump agenda that is, at its heart and soul, both anti-American and anti-Catholic.  I would suggest you turn off the fake news networks of the mainstream media, as well as those in the leftist Catholic media that shill for the pope and the Vatican, and seek a broader and more spiritually minded Catholic perspective at Radio New Jerusalem, an independent headline news and news portal service that I pray may open your eyes to the reality of a world -- and Church -- that increasingly looks like it has sprang from the pages of the Book of Revelation.  It's time to take this all seriously and see it for what it really is, and it is anything but politics as usual in either the United States or the Church.  And if, by the grace of God, we were given a man who had the courage, faith and perseverance to be pope like Donald Trump is president, then perhaps he would "drain the swamp" in the USCCB and make the Catholic Church in America great again. And so we pray...

Again, I advocate supporting the president and urge Congress to give him meaningful legislation to sign so that he may continue to resolve the problems of immigration, and the other ills, caused by many years of poor leadership by both parties.  And I urge those entrusted with advocating on the part of the Catholic Church to wake up, smell the coffee, and do likewise.  

Sincerely,

Philip D. Ropp